The Long Island recreation Committee held its annual New Year’s Eve Ball on Saturday, December 31. There was an excellent response again this year with just over a hundred tickets sold. DJ Michael Murray of Springdale supplied the music, which was excellent. The dance floor was rocking all night long. At midnight the lights came on as Auld Lang Syne was sung amidst a balloon drop while patrons rang in the New Year. Recreation then served each guest a delicious cold plate of hor d’oeurves, salad and finger foods. A really nice time, thank you Recreation Committee and all who helped out with food and preparations for the ball.

Church

The congregation of the Beaumont United Church, Long Island was pleased to welcome their new minister, William (Bill) Matchem and his wife Jean, for their first service on January 1, 2012. Up until December the Green Bay Pastoral Charge, which includes the United Churches at Long Island, Robert’s Arm and South Brook, was without a minister so all three communities send out a warm welcome to the Matchems. Bill is a student minister in his first year of studies. They are from Heatherton, a small town on the province’s west coast, which is approximately a 40-minute drive from Stephenville. Their hometown Pastoral Charge is St. Georges on the west coast. Bill and Jean have one daughter, Candice, married to Kyle McFatridge, who lives in Alberta. Candice and Kyle have blessed Bill and Jean with their first grandchild, baby girl Lydia, who was born on November 23, 2011. The Matchems would like to thank everyone in the Green Bay South Pastoral Charge for their warm welcome.

Heritage Society

Members of the Long Island Heritage Society, Recreation Committee and the Town were very dismayed on Tuesday, December 27th to discover that all their moose meat that was kept in the deep freezer at the Municipal Building had spoiled. The moose was from the charitable moose license obtained by the Heritage Society from the Department of Wildlife this past fall. It is believed that sometime in mid December the freezer malfunctioned and was not discovered until it was too late. There were some brief power outages around that time and maybe that’s when it happened. With the interruptions in regular routine due to the Christmas Holiday, the freezer was not checked on. There is a lesson to be learned from this, that freezers with valuable food items should be checked at least every two days, especially in situations like this where the freezer is not used every day.

Wind Damage

The Long Island Beothuk Hiking Trail sustained major damage during a wind storm on Thursday, December 8. The weather not being very good for hiking around that time, meant no one had been on the trail for awhile. Just over a week later a hiker reported to council that there was damage done to the steps leading to the first gazebo. On Monday, December 19 two council employees were sent in to survey and make notes of any damage that they found. They could hardly believe their eyes at the extent of the damage. All sets of steps to the first gazebo, except one, had been plucked from their moorings and flung off to the side as if they were mere toothpicks. As they made their way over the next two kilometers to the second gazebo they found sign boards toppled, a couple of trees broken down across the trail, steps leading up to the gazebo flung aside and at the top of Capelin Cove Head the second gazebo had been upended from its spot and thrown down the hill landing on its roof. My contact person from Environment Canada said that winds felt at Long Island was probably close to those measured at the weather station in Twillingate. The strongest gust measured at the Twillingate weather station was 128km/h and the sustained wind speed was between 75 and 91 km/h for several hours there, during the night of December 8-9. It is also interesting to note that the ferry Hazel McIssac measured its strongest gust while tied up at Sully Anne’s Cove, LBI at just over 135 km/h. We may have even had winds slightly stronger than those measured at Twillingate. Council has contacted the Department of Municipal Affairs to see if there will be any support given to put the trail infrastructure back in place, but as of news deadline this week have not heard back.